Abraham Ten Broeck was born in 1734 to Dirck Ten Broeck (1686-1751) and Margarita Cuyler (1682–1783). Abraham was one of twelve children born to the couple. Abraham first-generation grandfather had come to America from Holland in 1626 on the same ship with Peter Minuit, the first Director General of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. [Read more…] about Albany’s Abraham Ten Broeck: A Short Biography
Watervliet
The Transcontinental Railroad & The Capital District
On
May 10, 1869 the first United States Transcontinental Railroad was completed when a 17.6-karat gold ceremonial spike was driven into a railroad tie by Leland Stanford.
Begun in 1863, the “Pacific Railroad” or “Overland Route” was a joint, although competitive, endeavor between the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR), moving east from San Francisco to meet the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) which headed west from Council Bluffs, Iowa. The two railroad lines finally met at Promontory Point, Utah, after workers laid 1,912 miles of contiguous track. [Read more…] about The Transcontinental Railroad & The Capital District
The Capitol Region’s Race Course: Island Park
The Hudson River in New York’s Capital Region has always been a vital transportation link, and it also provides a conduit to undertakings of the past. The area presently occupied by Interstate-787 and its connectors to NY-378 were constructed on what had been a cluster of islands in the Hudson River, near Menands, between Albany and Watervliet.
Even in the 1820s, the road here became noted for unofficial, and illegal, horse racing. [Read more…] about The Capitol Region’s Race Course: Island Park
Tom Kilboy: Balladeer of the Erie Canal
This week on The Historians Podcast, David Brooks, education director at Schoharie Crossing State Historic site in Fort Hunter, takes a look at life on the wild side of the Erie Canal with tales about the Kilboys, including balladeer Tom Kilboy. [Read more…] about Tom Kilboy: Balladeer of the Erie Canal
Erie Canal Balladeer Tom Kilboy: A Short Biography
This might just be the image of a once well-known but now forgotten canal man who boasted fast cash and could bellow sweet, eloquent canal ballads near Waterford and Cohoes, active for decades between the 1870s to the early 20th century.
On December 22, 1938, Works Progress Administration (WPA) worker R. P. Gray came into the acquaintance of one Tom Kilboy. Gray was part of the Federal Writers’ Project, created in 1935 “to provide employment for historians, teachers, writers, librarians, and other white-collar workers” according to the Library of Congress.
It was in that work that Kilboy had been interviewed in his apartment at 2307 Broadway, West Troy – today’s Watervliet. [Read more…] about Erie Canal Balladeer Tom Kilboy: A Short Biography
Early Helderberg Settlers: The Fischer – Wood House
One of the earliest settlers above the Helderberg Escarpment was Piter Fischer who homesteaded on the flats below the current hamlet of Berne, Albany County, in about 1740. He married Dorothea Ball, whose father, Peter Ball probably, owned the next farm to the west.
They were among the earliest settlers in Beaver Dam (now Berne, Albany County) and settled on choice valley land. [Read more…] about Early Helderberg Settlers: The Fischer – Wood House
Jermain Family Philanthropy Helped Shape The Capital District
John Jordan left Edinburgh, Scotland in 1755 arriving in White Plains, colony of New York, the same year. Edinburgh had been the family home since Jordan’s father and grandfather fled France for Scotland following the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of French Huguenots in the late 1600s. John struck out on his own and decided to immigrate to America.
John married Mary Ann Daniels, a young woman of Dutch descent, and in 1758 they had a son, John Jordan, Jr. With the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, John Jordan, Sr. and his wife left New York and helped found the loyalist colony of St. John, New Brunswick, just across the Maine border. Their 19-year-old son, John Jr., stayed behind. [Read more…] about Jermain Family Philanthropy Helped Shape The Capital District
Bout of the Century: Heenan and Sayers
Britain and the US share a passion for boxing. Over time, it has been both mass entertainment and highbrow delight for writers from Byron to Norman Mailer, or artists from Cruikshanks to Bellows. In 1949, Kirk Douglas made his name as Midge Kelly in Champion. The greatest sporting event of the nineteenth century was a bout between a London bricklayer and a New York blacksmith. Both were of Irish descent. They became sporting super stars. [Read more…] about Bout of the Century: Heenan and Sayers
Military History Event at Schuyler Flatts This Weekend
The City of Watervliet Historical Society will host a “Time Line of World History” at the Schuyler Flatts Cultural Park on Saturday and Sunday, August 19-20, from 10 am to 4 pm Rt.
This family friendly event will have re-enactors of various wars including Union and Confederate Civil War units. There will be strong representation of U.S. Civil War re-enactors, as well as 20th Century German and Italian units, Roman Empire Vikings, and more. There will be displays of military uniforms, customs, drills, and weapons. [Read more…] about Military History Event at Schuyler Flatts This Weekend
A Short History of Watervliet Water Works
Fire! Fire! The words still strike fear into people, but in the 19th Century, the alarm of a fire in a community sometimes brought disaster. Unfortunately, large fires were very commonplace.
Fires in the early 19th Century sometimes leveled blocks of homes in Albany, and in the mid-19th Century, a spark from a steam engine set the old wooden Green Island Bridge over the Hudson River on fire and westerly winds blew hot embers into Troy causing the great conflagration that destroyed much of the center portion of the city. Building codes changed due to fires like these. [Read more…] about A Short History of Watervliet Water Works